The invention relates to manually operated cutting pliers for cables, wires, profiles and the like with two hinged plier grips spread apart by spring action, of which one is provided with a fixed jaw and the other actuates a jaw movable relative to the fixed jaw where at least one of the two jaws on the side facing the other has a cutting edge. Such pliers, known, for example, from Swiss Pat. No. 421,864, have a mouth open in the forward direction, which, depending on the thickness of the workpiece to be cut, opens more or less. The result is that in spite of the cutting jaws curved towards each other, the workpiece upon closing the pliers jumps out of its mouth (jaw arrangement) so that only relatively thin cables, wires, and the like, can be cut in practice.
It is the object of the invention to create a cutting pliers with which with little expenditure of force even the thickest cables, wires, profiles and the like can be securely cut without having to fear that the workpiece will jump from the pliers. This is achieved by the invention by the fact that the two plier jaws can be closed around the workpiece to form a jaw arrangement closed on all sides whose width can be reduced to zero by opening and closing the two plier grips. According to the invention, the movable jaw is pivotally mounted on the outer end, reaching around the workpiece, of the fixed jaw and is formed by a clamp to be placed around the workpiece which clamp during closure engages the sliding drive and during whose actuation the workpiece is gradually pinched between the jaws and finally split.
Preferably a slot guide for the movable jaw is provided at the fixed plier grip. The movable jaw on its outside has the form of a gear segment whose teeth are located on a circular arc centered around the pivot bearing, where the sliding drive cooperates with this gear tooth system.
A special advantage is provided in a known manner by constructing the pliers as a so-called shear-cutter where the two cutting jaws guide each other along plane surfaces, and the cutting phase is ground on the side facing away from the plane surface. The sliding drive is formed by a shear lever located at the movable plier grip (shear grip) and engaging the gear segment of the movable jaw (pivot knife) under spring action, and a stop lever located at the fixed plier grip (fixed grip) which lever, under spring action, engages the gear segment when the shear grip swings back.
So that the pliers can be actuated with minimum effort, the movable plier grip is located at a distance from the pivot bearing of the movable jaw corresponding to the radius of the tooth segment, on the fixed plier grip, while the shear lever together with the upper end of the movable plier grip forms a toggle lever drive cooperating with the gear segment. Finally, shear lever and stop lever are engaged to a common unlocking slide so that in any plier setting there is the possibility of releasing the pliers with a single manipulation.
The pliers in accordance with the invention are a hand tool operated with little effort which can be used for the cutting of cables, wires, ropes and profiles and for clipping branches and tree limbs, etc.